My Week as "Perfect Barbara"

Back on Sunday when I met with Seetha, she and I set up a schedule for the "Perfect Barbara" - what would her days look like? Here's what we came up with...

Wake up
30 minutes of cardio at the gym
Shower/Breakfast
Go to work
Lunch + walk outside after lunch
After work the following: Yoga, dinner, chores, meditation
Read before bed
Lights out so I get 8 hours of sleep

Pretty good schedule right?

I'll admit I felt tired just looking at it. In order to get 30 minutes of cardio in before work, it meant getting up an hour earlier than I have been. Which also means going to bed an hour earlier (super hard) if I'm going to get a full night's sleep. Seetha said it would tough at first and I would feel tired, but that if I stuck to it long enough it would become easier.

So far... so good! For the most part. :-)

Monday - The office was closed for President's Day so I didn't wake up super early, but I did do my cardio and yoga.

Tuesday - First day of early wake up... I slept like garbage because I kept waking up and checking the clock to see if it was time to go to the gym yet. Once my alarm finally went off I got up (no snooze button...very proud) and made it to the gym feeling excited. While there I saw Seetha and Linsay (my 60 day challenge coach) - silly but it felt good to know there were witnesses to my efforts. Did my 30 minutes of cardio... went to work... did feel tired but not too bad. Went on my lunch walk in 28 degree weather (brrrr). Then had Job #2 at night (so no yoga).

Wednesday - Second early wake up. Still no snooze button. Changed up my cardio to include some weights. Worked. Went to Bikram at night. Success!

Thursday (today) - Third day of early wake up... I did hit the snooze button once, but I have not felt nearly as tired today as the other days, so perhaps I'm already starting to get used to it! I work again at Job #2 tonight, but not terribly late so I plan to do a small yoga workout at home (I get out too late to make it to an actual class).

All in all... waking up earlier and getting my cardio in is going great! My lunch walk is going great (thankfully it's warmed up a bit since my first outing on Tuesday). Food is also going great - there's no way I want to screw up after putting so much effort in to haul my butt to the gym while it's still dark outside (that was honestly the main idea behind the whole schedule... focus on establishing a routine and food should fall into place...). What is not going great: chores (the sink is full of dishes, the trash is full, and I have laundry to do), meditation (haven't done it once), and getting to bed earlier (so basically I'm now only getting 7 hours of sleep). I can catch up on chores this weekend, but somehow I have to figure out how to meditate and get to bed earlier.

And now for some pictures to liven up the post. Sorry, the only pictures I seem to take lately are of our juice creations. :-)

Wednesday's: Kale, apple, carrot, pear, orange

Delicious! Made me sad though because it looked like a Diet Coke float, and I realized I will never have one of those again. :-(

Thursday's: carrots, pear, apple, tangerine (juice only for me, that's why the plate isn't so full)

SUPER tasty!

It seems I've definitely gotten used to carrots in juice. Hopefully green things will start tasting better soon...

And now the update for this handy thing... Woohoo!

Adventures in Juicing

The juicer has been getting LOTS of use. I am so proud of our creations (even though some of them taste DISGUSTING). While drinking every juice is not always great, I actually have a lot of fun making the juice... and thankfully clean up isn't too bad. Andy and I have gotten into a morning routine where we prep the fruits and veggies, make the juice, and immediately clean up before we start drinking anything - it's great. If we didn't do that I think cleaning it would be an absolute nightmare, but so far so good!

Here's what we've been making over the last few days.

Celery, Cucumber, Apple, Orange

Tasted like liquid salad...

Apple, Grapefruit, Tangerine

Delicious! My favorite so far!

Carrot, Beet, Apple

Tasted only like beets. YUCK

It's safe to say I like the all-fruit juice the best - of course the ones with veggies are better for me. I'm hoping it's like coffee and wine... an acquired taste. I hope I acquire it soon!

The other night Andy and I watched "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" - a documentary on this one guy's 60 day juice fast. He went around the country and encouraged people to do a 10 day juice fast. Andy keeps talking about it now - says he wants to try it. I'm kind of on the fence... I need to talk to Seetha and get her thoughts first!

Speaking of Seetha - I met with her at Starbucks on Sunday evening and we sat and talked for almost 3 hours. We honestly talked about a million things (our love of Japan to name a big topic of conversation), but of course we talked about food/exercise/weight too. We talked about what "Perfect Barbara's Schedule" would look like, so... I'm giving it a shot. New goal: Cardio before work and yoga after work on most days. We'll see how it goes. Today was my first day back at the office and I did manage to get to the gym and do 30 minutes of elliptical before heading to work - I consider that success! (although I am pretty sleepy now)

Before heading to work this morning, Andy and I stopped off to say a final farewell to Lisa who is driving with Anna to her new pad in Baltimore as I type this! I will really miss Lisa a lot. A LOT. But I know I will still get to see her on and off. Thankfully Baltimore isn't tooooo far away.

Bye Lisa!

Eddie and Boo, ready to hit the road!

Alright, time for me to sign off. Job #2 tonight... then another early morning again as I continue my AM Cardio efforts!

Sunday's Post

Let me start off by saying I typed this up on Sunday morning, but because we get free internet from our landlords... well... it isn't always reliable, so I've been unable to actually post. Please put your "Sunday Morning" hat on while you read this post. :-)

Hi.

So I started the 60 day challenge strong. Then the field trip concerts for Job #1 happened. That means I spend the morning standing outside helping little kids get off their school buses and cross the street. It was freezing cold this week. Like… - 4 degrees. Needless to say…

This

Freezing Temps

Plus this

Stressed Babs

Equals this

Donut hole destruction

And of course that just started a spiral of bad decisions for the rest of the week, which brings us to today (Sunday) where I now weigh 2 pounds more than I did last Saturday when the 60 day challenge started. Not a good way to begin.

Today also marks 6 months until the wedding. At this point I am 11 pounds heavier than when I bought my wedding dress, so I clearly have some work to do. Not to mention when I bought my dress I was hoping to lose more weight, so I have a lot of work to do. I found this nifty little tracker thingy… hopefully I'll remember how to update it. :) Should be a fun visual way to track my progress.

For Valentine's Day, Andy bought me an amazing gift…. A JUICER! We started off today with a healthy juice. Using the juicer is actually really fun. And thankfully, the juice tasted better than it looked.

Apples, Carrots, and Oranges

Food destroyed...

... juice enjoyed!

Now off to the gym. Food will be my biggest obstacle in completing my wedding weight loss goal, but I know the more I move, the more that will help.

60 Day Challenge

Hello friends.

The first half of this week is one of my most stressful times at Job #1, so... I'm going to focus on the things that are making me happy right now.

#1 - Reading. I had Mind/Body Book Club on Thursday night. I finished the book on time (phew).

February's Book

While I thought the style of the book was a little self-help cheesy, there were a few "nuggets" that I thought were really worthwhile. The book club discussion was nice too. It's mostly just interesting to hear people talk about their own experiences - just because they might be super skinny and beautiful on the outside, they're not that much different from you (me) on the inside. Everyone struggles.

I ordered the next Mind/Body book on Amazon and it should arrive tomorrow. I'm looking forward to reading this one...

March's Book

I also did a LOT of reading this weekend. On Friday night, while half watching the Olympic Opening Ceremonies, I finished a book Rose had loaned me...

Recommended by Rose

I'll admit it took me awhile to get into the book... like, almost 200 pages... but once I did, I really liked it. Probably why I stayed up past midnight finishing it on Friday. :-)

And now that I'd finished with The Scorpio Races and am still waiting for my next book club book to arrive, I've started reading a book Seetha recommended to me. I'm about 40 pages in so far and it is incredible - in many ways, I feel like I'm reading a book about myself.

Recommended by Seetha

So yeah... lots of reading. But I think it's a good way to spend time.

#2 - My knee. I know this post is about things that make me happy, and... while my knee isn't exactly making me happy, I'm happy to say I think it is actually starting to get better. My new PT regimen seems to be working well, and while there's still a lot of swelling and stiffness (especially by the end of the day) the actual "pain" is much less than it's been in over a year. Woohoo! Fingers crossed!!

My view at PT on Friday morning

#3 - THE 60 DAY CHALLENGE!!!!!! Job #2 started a 60 day "get fit" challenge for interested associates. We had a kickoff group workout on Saturday afternoon. I am so excited about the challenge, not only because of the prospect of getting less squishy, but because so many of my Job #2 friends are participating too. In fact everyone I work with is participating: Diane, Kristin, Ted, Therese, Elizabeth, Lisa, Laura, Jen, and Rachel.

Babs and Kristin - ready to workout!

60 Day Challenge Group Workout

On Saturday afternoon I went to the grocery store - while I was in the produce section I saw Therese and she threw her fist in the air and said "Go Produce!!" Even though it's an individual challenge, we definitely have a team spirit attitude that is making me really excited about the whole thing.

#4 - Seetha. Duh, I love her and she always makes me happy (unless she tells me to take shots of apple cider vinegar). Last night Andy and I went to see "Free the Mind," a movie about meditation. Seetha went too, and I was so happy that they got to meet each other. The movie wasn't as great as I was hoping for, but I'm feeling more committed to making meditation a regular part of my routine - seems super hippy dippy, but I do think it will be helpful, and without Seetha's encouragement, I never would have tried.

So that's about it! Job #1 today - hopefully I'll get out in time to make it to a Bikram class. Only 57 days left in the challenge... I need to sweat off some squishy!!

3 Day Cleanse - Complete!

That's right - for three days straight I had nothing but fruits and vegetables. It honestly was not very hard (although I did feel like I was getting more and more hungry as the days went by). All in all, I lost 4.8 pounds, and that was pretty much without any exercise at all unless you want to count two short and easy yoga videos off of YouTube. Success!

While I was tempted to have a super delicious egg and sausage breakfast, I decided I wouldn't stray too far from what I've been doing these last three days and made a smoothie instead. I changed up my ingredients a bit which changed the color and texture. Let's just say I reaaaally wish I had a glass that wasn't clear...

Guacamole Vomit Smootie...

Who knew peaches, strawberries, and spinach could look so nasty... Anyway, on the whole I'm feeling a lot better, although there are definitely a few stressors in my life right now. I met with Seetha today and we talked things through. She said I'm burning the candle at both ends (seems to always be the case), and she helped me identify what I need - is it sleep? emotional food? After talking it over, I think I just need some time alone to do nothing. Mostly the people at Job #1 are driving me absolutely nuts... I just need some peace and quiet! Of course that's going to have to wait until tomorrow because tonight I have Job #2 and Mind/Body Bool Club. Oh well.

Job #1 is my big stress right now. Other things I'm not thrilled with... 1) my haircut yesterday... I know she's just trying to make my hair look healthy but I feel like she cut so much off. I'm not sure it can even all grow back before the wedding. It was hard not to cry while doing my hair this morning. 2) Winter. We got yet another storm yesterday.

Look how high the snow is piled up on our chain link fence!

3) Valentines Day. I want it to be special but I am out of energy, ideas, and money. 4) Wedding. Too many decisions. Too many people involved. I wish I could wave a magic wand and "pouf" it would be done. I'm already burning the candle at both ends. I think I need a whole other candle to burn for wedding things.

So, that's about all that's going on. Now I'm off to a high school to borrow some marching band equipment... what a thrilling life I lead. ;-)

Cleanse Day 1 - Complete

Day 1 of the all fruit/vegetable cleanse was a success. Honestly it wasn't even all that hard (probably because I still had lots of Superbowl food in my stomach)... just took a lot of time to wash/cut/prep everything. Here was last night's dinner...

Kale Salad, Asparagus, Brussel Sprouts, Butternut Squash 

Andy did a great job sticking to it too, although he did have some wine after dinner. He claimed it's made from grapes so it fit the rules, but something tells me alcohol doesn't really belong in a cleanse. ;-)

Before bed I did a little yoga and my PT exercises. All in all, a good day.

I woke up this morning feeling a lot lighter (and in fact, I lost 2.6 pounds) and more "peppy," although as I was heading to work I also found myself feeling extra irritated and stupid things - like when I had to stop at a red light and my lunch bag fell over and my pear rolled out. Not a big deal, but I was NOT happy about it. I guess I shouldn't be surprised if I'm a little on edge.... but I am making an effort to try to be nice to people, even if I don't completely feel like it.

Job #2 tonight. Check in tomorrow to see how things go for Cleanse Day 2.

Play

Welcome back to myself and to you. I am ready to get back to life and to start taking care of myself again. And lucky you... you get to read all about it. :-) I struggled over these last few weeks wondering whether or not to come back to my blog. It seems selfish to have a blog and just write about yourself and what you do. So for that, I'm sorry. But then I also really enjoy reading Nicole's blog - she lives in California, we don't get to talk a lot, so reading her blog helps me feel connected to her much more than I would feel if we were only connected through an occasional email. With that said... I've decided to keep it going as an attempt to stay connected. Let's connect...

 There's no way we will catch up so I'm not even going to try. Just know that in an attempt to cope with what's been going on, I completely medicated with food... and even though things have gotten a lot better, that spiral had gotten so strong that I've had a hard time escaping (until today). Also know that I now believe Seetha is an angel that was sent her to help me. I love her.

Last night capped off the food-fest spiral, but I don't feel too bad about it - it was Super Bowl Sunday after all.

Sheena - celebrating in Chicago!

Coma-inducing cookies (SO SWEET)

Go Seahawks!!!

Bips and Anna!

I definitely enjoyed hanging out at Anna and Bipul's watching my home team win the game. :-)

Now it's Monday and I am feeling FAT. I know negative self-talk is really harmful, but this is just honesty. I've gained 11.5 pounds since the new year... and I definitely "feel" it today. Seetha is having me do a three day cleanse starting today... for the next three days I'm only eating fruits and vegetables. So far, so good. Andy said he'll do it too, which is awesome. We'll see how it turns out!

And one final update. I've already gathered my 11 clothing items for donation (remember my new year's resolution?). Good job Babs.

Proof